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Reviews
Cherry Falls (1999)
Painfully bad
I watched this film last night, and was shocked to see it's rating on IMDB. It's severely overestimated on this site.
SPOILERS WITHIN
Basically this film is about a murderer in a small town who starts knocking off, oops, bad choice of words, killing virgins.
The acting is, across the board, appalling. Michael Biehn seems merely to be going through the motions, and his eyes never change from the glazed expression he sported in 'The Terminator'. One actor, Keram Malicki-Sánchez has a spark of originality, but even his efforts are wasted in a film this bad.
The plot is a bundle of cliches, an empty high school, a mouldy, old, disused house. It even steals (note: steals, doesn't pays homage to, doesn't reference, steals) unashamedly from such classics as 'Psycho', as the killer dresses up as his dead/missing mother. It could be perhaps forgiven if it was referencing in a 'Scream' sort of way, but there are no knowing winks or nods to an intelligent audience.
Another problem; the editing. The editing and visual effects are not at all good, like the rest of this film. For example:at one point our heroine and ex-boyfriend are running away from the killer through some woods. He falls flat, the camera cuts to a different angle, and he is suddenly almost on his feet!! Terrible editing. Some camera effects seem to be thrown in just for good measure; when the deputy hears that her Sherrif has been killed, the camera goes into jerky slow-mo for about three seconds!! Whats the point!! It has no effect when used in this way!! Grr.
Throw in a some truly fake and OTT screams, some massive character inconsistencies, some random bits I still don't get (when the principal is killed, he has 'VIRGIN NOT' scrawled on his forehead with a knife. Someone shoot the script writer), and you have a movie that is worse than the sum of it's already terrible parts.
NEVER watch this film, unless you have already had a lobotomy.
1/10 (no reason for the 1/10, but imdb won't let you vote 0/10)
Shooting Fish (1997)
Charming
If this quirky British comedy could be summed up in a word, that word would be "charming".
The story is a simple, low-budget British one: two orphans scam as many people as they can for as much money as they can in an effort to buy the stately home they always dreamed of as children.
Everything is going swimmingly, until they join forces with a typist, Georgie (the perfect Kate Beckinsale), and the plot leads on from there...
The acting is perfect for the film, neither overstated nor low key, and suits the plot and style very well. The direction is quirky, but makes no new ground, and also fits the script to a tee.
This film would be great viewing for a date (perhaps not for a lads night in), and has the simple comedy you might expect from such classic British TV series as "Only Fools and Horses", or "Last of the Summer Wine".
It doesn't require much brain power, but is one of the best homegrown (British) comedies of recent(ish) years.